Tuesday, March 20, 2007

It was disappointing not to see the Martin Creed garden still in place in Christchurch. Creed had planted the temporary installation as his contribution to Christchurch the Garden City for Scape 2006. An eclectic variety of plants were strictly ranked in order from smallest to largest in a straight line. Given the different growth patterns of the plants, it would have been fascinating to track the idea over a longer period of time rather than revert so quickly to the predictable colour splashes that have replaced it. The Creed planting neatly matched Robert Irwin’s description of the fabulous garden he designed for the Getty Center in Los Angeles: "a sculpture in the form of a garden aspiring to be art."Images top, from left: Martin Creed Scape, September 2006, Christchurch City Council, March 2007. Bottom: Robert Irwin’s garden at the Getty Center, Los Angeles.